poll tax

American  

[pohl] / poʊl /

noun

1. a capitation tax, the payment of which is sometimes a prerequisite to exercise the right of suffrage.

---

poll tax British  

noun

1. a tax levied per head of adult population

2. an informal name for (the former) community charge

---

poll tax Cultural  

1. A tax required as a qualification for voting. After the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution extended the vote to blacks in 1870, many southern states instituted poll taxes to prevent blacks from voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1964, prohibits poll taxes for federal elections.

---

Etymology

Origin of poll tax

First recorded in 1685–95

Example Sentences

In 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed practices designed to disenfranchise Black voters by banning literary tests and poll taxes.

From Seattle Times

They all came from the poll taxes, I mean, from the poll tax sheet.

From Seattle Times

A flagship policy of Margaret Thatcher's government, the Community Charge, more commonly called the poll tax, was eventually replaced after triggering mass civil disobedience and riots and some were sent to prison for non-payment.

From BBC

I knew the cursory, surface-level facts about poll taxes and literacy tests, the Freedom Riders and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

From Seattle Times

It took another 16 years, and a constitutional amendment, to end the Jim Crow tactic of poll taxes.

From Washington Post